Slitting mechanism having transverse severing means



1965 H. R. DE MALLlE ETAL 3,169,430

SLITTING MECHANISM HAVING TRANSVERSE SEVERING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 6, 1961 HOWARD R. DEMALLIE PHILIP U. BROTHERS INVENTORS ATTORNEYS 1965 H. R. DE MALLIE ETAL 3,169,430

SLITTING MECHANISM HAVING TRANSVERSE SEVERING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 6, 1961 HOWARD R. DEMALLIE PHkLlP U. BROTHERS INVENTORS MMEQZ/ ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office Patented Feb. 16, 1%65 3,19,430 SETTING MECHANISM HAVH lG TRANSVERSE SEVERENG MEANS Howard R. De Mallie and llhilip U. Brothers, Rochester,

N.Y., assignors to Eastman Kodak Qornpany, Rochester, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed .luly 6, 19611, Ser. No. 122,188 Claims. (Cl. 83-152) The present invention relates to slitting machines and more specifically to machines for longitudinally slitting a web of material such as photographic film into a plurality of strips. One object of the invention is to enable such a. machine to be conveniently and rapidly threaded by a single operator. Another object of the invention is to reduce the possibility of accidental injury to the opera tor during the threading operation. Still another object of the invention is to incorporate in such a machine means for severing the leading end of the web material being slit without producing dust or shavings. Still another object of the invention is to simplify the threading of such machines by cutting the leading ends of the strips to different lengths indicative of the wind-up cores to which they are to be attached. These and other important objects will be more readily apparent by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a slitting machine according to the preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the upper film wind-up reel mechanism showing one reel in the position in which film is attached thereto and another reel in the position in which film is wound thereon;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of that portion of the machine including the slitter knives and the mechanism employed to hold and sever the ends of the strips, including a movable vacuum box which moves the ends of the severed strips to a more accessible position from which they are attached to the wind-up reels; and

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the movable vacuum box and the mechanism associated therewith to sever the ends of the strips.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a roll 11 of film 12 to be slit is supported in appropriate trunnions, not shown, at the front end of the machine adjacent a perforating mechanism 13 of the type generally described in US. Patent 2,944,457, issued to W. M. Thompson, in, et al. on July 12, .1960. To thread the machine, the end of the film wound on roll 11 is manually threaded under a guide roller 14, past the open throat 15 of the perforating mechanism 13 and movable roller 16, and over a second guide roller 17. The end of the film is then applied to a stationary vacuum box 18, against which it is held by vacuum applied to the adjacent surface of the film.

With the film threaded past the perforating mechanism 13 and retained by vacuum box 18, air cylinder H is actuated to cause roller 16 to move to the position shown in broken lines, thereby withdrawing additional film from upply roll 11 to provide slack between roll 11 and vacuum box 18. Cylinder 19 is then actuated in the opposite direction to return roller 16 to its initial position, after which a tuck bar 21 is moved by means of an air cylinder 22 to form a loop of film in the throat of the perforating mechanism 13 as shown in broken lines. The film in this loop area is then perforated with coding indicia for film identification purposes.

After the film has been perforated and the tuck bar returned to its initial position by cylinder 22, the end of the film is removed from the vacuum box and is manually fed over a vacuum metering roller .23, and between a guide plate 24, and a looper roller 25 which are located in the position shown in solid lines during the threading operation. In this position the guide plate is aligned with the rotary slitter knives 26 and 27 to temporarily support the film in alignment with the knives.

The peripheral surface of the vacuum metering roller 23 is provided with apertures which are connected to a vacuum pump, not shown, through a valve, not shown, in such a way as to apply vacuum only to those apertures covered by the film strip, thereby causing the film to drivingly adhere to the metering roller 23 in the area contacted thereby.

After the film has been fed over the metering roller 23 and onto the guide plate 24 as previously described, the metering roller 23 and the slitter knives are run slowly until the end of the film has been fed through the knives and across the top surface of a movable vacuum box 28 which, during this operation, is located adjacent the slitter knives as shown in broken lines in FIGS. 1 and 3 and in solid lines in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, movable vacuum box 28 is provided along its top surface with rows of holes 2?, each row being adjacent a strip 30 of the slit film as shown in FIG. 3. Each row of holes communicates with a separate vacuum chamber 31 within the vacuum box as shown in FIG. 4; the separate vacuum chambers being, in turn, connected by means of orifices 32 to a common vacuum duct 33 from which air is exhausted through a flexible tube 34 by a pump, not shown. A spring loaded poppet valve 35 is provided in orifice 32 of each of the vacuum chambers, with the stem 36 thereof projecting slightly above the top perforated surface of the box through one of the holes 29. In the condition shown in FIG. 4 the valve is seated by spring 37 with just enough force to overcome the vacuum in duct 33, thereby preventing passage of air through orifice 32. By depressing the valve stem to a position flush with the perforated plate, however, the valve is moved off its seat to allow air to flow around the valve stem 36 between chamber 31 and duct 33.

After the ends of the film strips have been located above the vacuum box, as described previously, pressure roller 38 is moved by air cylinder 39 into contact with the film opposite the ends of the projecting valve stems and presses the strips against the perforated surface of the box, thereby opening valves 35 and causing the vacuum chambers to be evacuated, whereby the film is drawn against the perforated surface. With the film so held on the movable vacuum box, guide plate 24 and looper roller 25 are moved to the position shown in broken lines in FIG. 1 to cause the film to pass through the slitter knives in a semi-cylindrical path, thereby eliminating any longitudinal wrinkles or undulations in the film between the slitter knives.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a cut-off wire 41 of Nichrome or a similar material is supported on the vacuum box unit in transverse relation to the film strips 30 by insulating member 42 located between a strip of readily compressible foam material and a somewhat less compressible rubber tube 76. When the foregoing operations have been performed, low pressure air is introduced into cylinder 43 by valve means, not shown, to lower cut-off clamp 44. As the cut-off clamp is lowered, the ends of the film strips are clamped between one leg of the clamp and tube 76 and the slack is removed from the strips as they are drawn over member 42, thereby stopping the movement of the clamp in the position shown in broken lines in FIG. 4. In this position, the clamp holds the film strips in light contact with the cut-off wire 41 and in contact with tube 76 and strip 75, which cooperate with clamp 44 to provide a light seal to prevent possible fogging of the film as the cut-off wire is subsequently heated. With the clamp in this position, a timer, schematically represented at 77 in FIG. 3, applies electric current to the cut-off wire to heat the wire to a predetermined temperature suificient to melt the thermoplastic film strips. When the wire has attained this temperature,

high pressure air is introduced into cylinder 43 to move clamp 44 to a stilllower positiomthereby further compressing strip 75 and tube 76 and severing the film strips This operation not is maintained during the movement of the clamp by means, of a pinion shaft '45 cooperating with racks 46 and 47 on the piston rod 48 of cylinder 43 and sliding support rod 49, which are supported by appropriate means, not shown, on the frame of the machine. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, projections 51 are provided along the inclined edge'SZ of the vacuum box in alignment vwith alternate strips of film in order that the strips which pass over these projections, are slightly longer than the remaining strips after the strips have been simultaneously severed by cutoil wire 41. I 7

After the film strips have thus been severed, the cut-off clamp 44 and pressure roller 38 are returned to'their former positions and the short ends severed from the film strips drop away from the vacuum box. Although valves I 35 are no longer held in their open positions by roller 38, they are nevertheless retained in this. position against the slight pressure of springs '37 by the film itself, which is now drawn against the perforated plate by vacuum.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, the'movable vacuum box 28- is supported by roller wheels 53 in stationary tracks 54,.for movement between the position occupied during the foregoing operations asshown in broken lines and a position shown in solid lines, by means of roller chains 55 and -6, which are attached to the lower end surfaces of the movable vacuum box between sprocket shafts 57, and which are driven by means of a reversible motorShthrough drive'belt 59. After the film severing operation has been completed as previously described, the vacuum metering roller 23 and the slitter knives lei-and I '27 are again run slowly to create slackfilm between the 1 .slitter knives and the movable vacuumbox 28 while the vacuum box 28 with the ends of the filmstrips adhering thereto is moved under upper film strip roller 66 to the I -With the ends of the filmstrips now severed and in a readily accessible position, the final operation in threading the machine involves attaching the ends of the strips to individual wind-up reels 61. As shown in FlG. 1 two sets of wind-up reels are-provided to accommodate al- .ternate strips of film, one set being located above and the'other below the movable vacuum box; As illustrated 'in FIG. 2, each of the reels '61 comprises a removable core 62'having a slot 63 or similar means for attaching the end of astripthereto, and a single fiange 64 adapted to drivably engage the core 62 mounted thereonand to guide and support one edge of theroll of filmwound on the core. To provide free access to the reel cores to facilitate attaching the film strips thereto, each reel is rotatably supportedby a support arm' 65 which is in- -=div-idually movable-between the winding position shown ber which engages a notch 67 in support arm 65 to re- .tain the reels in winding position. ,In order to'prevent possible injury to the operator, each of the upper windup reel support arms is also provided with an overriding V clutch mechanism 68 in engagement with the upper reel support shaft 69 which, during'this stage of the threading operation, is slowly rotated in a counter, clockwise direc- Ysequent severing operation is to be performed.

. .4 'Y tion as viewed in PEG. 1, Thisconstruction serves to limit the speed at which the reels descend to the threading position when the latches are released, while allowing the reels to be manually returned to the winding position. The lower set of reels corresponds substantially to the upper set but requires no latches or safety devices since the reels are moved manually between the threading and winding positions in which the reel support arms bear against stop members 71 and 72 respectively.

After having moved a reel to its threading position, the operator removes the appropriate strip from the vacuum box by grasping the short'projecting end of the strip and pulling the strip off the perforated surface against the.- force of the'vacuum applied to the lower surface of the strip. The difference in length between the alternate strips, as described previously enables the operatorto easily determine'which strips go to the upper reels and which go to the lower reels; As each'strip is removed, the stem of the valve which was depressed thereby is free to bernoved upwardly by its spring, thereby closing the vacuum orifice in the adjacent vacuum chamber. The strip is then attached to the core of the appropriate reel and the reel is returned to its winding position. As shown in'FlG. 1, the film strips are guided to the upper and lower reels by film strip-rollers'dll and '73 respectively, which are freely rotatable to prevent scratching the film or imposing frictional drag. V

In order to rotate the wind-up reels towind the film strips thereon as the slitter is'operated, drive means illustrated schematically at '74 in FIG. '1, are provided adjacent'the windingpositions of the reels. Although various forms of drive means may beemployed, as for example rotating friction driving wheels engaging the edges of the reel flanges, such drive means must be, capable of accurately regulating the torque applied to the reels to insure uniform Winding throughout the slitting operation, Accordingly, in the preferred embodiment of the machine, each reel flange is formed of aluminum'or some other conductive but essentially non-magnetic metal and comprises the armature of'an induction-disk type motor which is driven by a moving magnetic field. The drive means employed to generate the driving field may comprise either alternating current magnets adjacent the edges of the flanges or disk-like permanent'magnets arranged along a rotating shaft in adjacent relation to the edges of the flanges. If alternating current magnets are emthe torque induced in the flanges by rotating magnetic disks adjacent thereto may be re'gulatedby varying the. i 'rotational'speed of the permanent magnets or their proximity to the flanges. 1

,With regard to such drive mechanisms it has been discovered, although not by the present inventors and; not as a partof the present invention, that the efficiency of such drive means may be increased by forming the rotatingmagnets of two magnetic disks spaced by a magnetically. permeable disk and/ or by coating the reel vflanges with a thin layer of more conductive material, for

example, by plating a'thin layer of'c'opper onto an alumi- After the threading operation has been completed, the vacuum metering roller 23, the slitter knives and the take-up reels are driven in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1 to rapidly slit the film as it passes through the knives. v

The vacuum boir remains in the position shown in solid lines in FIG. 3 during the slitting operation andis returned to the position shown in broken lines when a subif only short lengths of film are to be wound on the wind-up reels, the machine may be stopped after the desired amount offilm has been slit and wound, and the film strips maybe severed by the hot wire and reattached to 75' empty cores in the same manner previously described;

automatic control means, not shown, being employed to stop the machine after all of the film or a predetermined length thereof has been slit.

Although the foregoing operations have been described independently, it is obvious that these operations may be automatically controlled to simplify the threading process and to insure that these operations take place in proper sequence. For example, a mechanism may be provided whereby a single button or lever may be actuated after the ends of the slit film have been moved over the movable vacuum box, to cause the strips to be secured to the box, severed, and moved to accessible position at the end of the machine.

Since it is obvious that various modifications of the invention are possible without departing from the spirit thereof, the present disclosure should be considered in an illustrative sense, the scope of the invention being defined by the following claims.

Having now particularly described our invention, what we desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United State and what we claim is:

1. In a machine for longitudinally separating a length of web material to form a plurality of strips as said material passes a slitting mechanism, the combination comprising: movable strip holding means adapted to engage said strips adjacent said mechanism; means for trimming the ends of said strips while so engaged so that alternate strips have ends thereof of distinctive length to be distinguishable by such length, and means for moving said movable strip holding means and the severed ends of said strips engaged thereby to a position remote from said mechanism to enhance sorting of said trimmed strips at a point remote from said mechanism.

2. A construction according to claim 1 in which said movable strip holding means comprises: a vacuum duct; means defining a plurality of chambers each thereof being provided with an orifice duct; a strip supporting member provided with a pinrality of holes, each of said holes communicating with a single one of said chambers be adjacent a single strip of film when said film strips are in engaging relation to said movable strip holding means; movable valve means adapted to open and close each of said orifices independently; and valve actuating means for maintaining each orifice open so long as a strip of film is in contact with said support member in the area including those holes which communicate with that chamber with which such orifice communicates and for closing such orifice when said strip is removed from contact with siad support member in such area.

3. A construction according to claim 1 in which said means for trimming the ends of said strips comprises an elongated heating element supported on said movable communicating with said i and being so located as to strip holding means and extending transversely of and adjacent to said film strips engaged by said holding means; means for moving said strips into contacting relation with said element; means for developing a substantial misalignment of adjacent strips by controlling the bending thereof in response to said strip moving means; means for heating said element to a predetermined temperature sufficient to melt said strips in contact therewith; means for tensioning said strips across said element after said element has reached said predetermined temperature to sever said strips thereby; and means for mov ing the severed ends of said strips out of mutual contact and out of contact with said element.

4. In a machine for longitudinally separating a length of Web material to form a plurality of strips as said material passes a slitting mechanism, the combination com prising: slitter knives forming a part of said mechanism; movable strip holding means including a perforated plate adjacent said plurality of strips and said mechanism; means for applying a vacuum to said perforated plate to cause said plurality of strips to adhere thereto; a strip ser ering element supported on said movable strip holding means adjacent said strips in spaced relation to said perforated plate and said mechanism; means for moving said strips relative to said element to effect the trimming the ends thereof by said element; and means for moving said movable strip holding means and the strips adhering thereto to a position remote from said slitter knives after said strips have been trimmed.

5. A construction according to claim 4 including means defining a first path of predetermined length traversed by one of said film strips between said perforated plate and said element as said one strip is severed by said element; and means defining a second path of greater length traversed by another of said strips between said perforated plate and said element as that strip is severed by said element, whereby said strips are severed to different lengths to facilitate separation thereof.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 883,793 Engbcrg Apr. 7, 1908 1,837,612 Gangler Dec. 22, 1931 2,202,496 La Bombard May 28, 1940 2,865,449 Frankenburg Dec. 23, 1958 2,933,003 Wheeler Apr. 19, 1960 2,991,679 Moran July 11, 1961 3,089,369 Hermanet May 14, 1963 FOREIGN PATENTS 805,836 Great Britain Dec. 17, 1958 

1. IN A MACHINE FOR LONGITUDINALLY SEPARATING A LENGTH OF WEB MATERIAL TO FORM A PLURALITY OF STRIPS AS SAID MATERIAL PASSES A SLITTING MECHANISM, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING: MOVABLE STRIP HOLDING MEANS ADAPTED TO ENGAGE SAID STRIP ADJACENT SAID MECHANISM; MEANS FOR TRIMMING THE ENDS OF SAID STRIPS WHILE SO ENGAGED SO THAT ALTERNATE STRIPS HAVE ENDS THEREOF OF DISTINCTIVE LENGTH TO BE DISTINGUISHABLE BY SUCH LENGTH, AND MEANS FOR MOVING SAID MOVABLE STRIP HOLDING MEANS AND THE SEVERED ENDS OF SAID STRIPS ENGAGED THEREBY TO A POSITION REMOTE FROM SAID MECHANISM TO ENHANCE SORTING OF SAID TRIMMED STRIPS AT A POINT REMOTE FROM SAID MECHANISM 